Tanzanian journalist killed reporting police-opposition clash

DAR ES SALAAM, Sept 4 A leading Tanzanian editor
accused police on Tuesday of beating up and killing television
journalist Daudi Mwangosi, who died on Sunday during clashes
between anti-riot police and supporters of the opposition
CHADEMA party.

A police commissioner denied police responsibility but said
he had ordered a joint military-police inquiry into the killing.
Photos of the victim were uploaded onto the Internet and
published by local newspapers.

Opposition leaders and activists linked the incident to a
wider trend of rapidly growing violence against dissent in
Tanzania and called for an independent inquiry.

Mwangosi was killed in a village in the Iringa region, about
500 km (315 miles) west of the capital Dar es Salaam, while
reporting the clashes between police and CHADEMA supporters.

It was the first time in modern Tanzanian history that a
journalist had been killed while doing his job, the Tanzania
Editors' Forum (TEF) said.

"It was a deliberate move by the police, who clearly
targeted this journalist. Eyewitnesses said the journalist was
surrounded by police, beaten up and brutally killed," TEF
secretary-general Neville Meena told Reuters.

Police fired a tear gas shell into Daudi's stomach at close
range, Meena said. "Photos of fragments of Daudi's blown-up body
hit the Internet less than one hour after the incident. We
believe that the police are deliberately targeting journalists
in a violent crackdown."

The police denied responsibility and said they had moved in
to disperse an illegal gathering of opposition supporters.

"Police deny any deliberate involvement in the death of the
journalist," police commissioner of operations Paul Chagonja
said in a statement. "A commission of inquiry comprising
officials from the police and military has been formed to
investigate the death of the journalist."

Journalists at the scene uploaded images onto the Internet
that they said showed Mwangosi's mutilated body lying on the
ground, his abdomen ripped open and intestines spilling out.

Local newspapers published photos that showed a man lying on
the ground, surrounded by anti-riot police officers who were
beating him. The newspapers identified the man as Mwangosi,
though the face was not recognisable.

"We condemn the killing ..." the Guardian newspaper of
Tanzania said in an editorial. "It is unacceptable for the
government and the public to rely on police investigations,
knowing only too well that they are in this case one of the
parties being blamed for the death of our colleague," it added.

Mwangosi's death came a week after one person was killed and
several were wounded when police fired tear gas to break up an
opposition protest in Morogoro town, a stronghold of the ruling
CCM party.
(Editing by Yara Bayoumy and Tim Pearce)

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